The Makings of a Mouse

I  thought I would take you through the process I use to make my 2D felt pieces.

Three months ago I had never even heard of needle felting, let alone tried it. In a perverted sort of way, I suppose I have Covid 19 and lockdown to thank for discovering this medium. For me, the silver lining to a rather dark cloud!

My pictures start off as batts of pure, carded wool and I sculpt them with the use of fine, barbed needles.

I start with core wool and with repeated stabbing with the barbed needle, the fibres begin to knit together. The more I stab, the tighter the fibres interlink and the firmer the felt becomes.

Many of my pieces are animals and so I sculpt the basic features before beginning to introduce colour.

They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul. I always put a lot of effort into getting the eyes right. If the eyes have expression then the whole piece takes on a life of its own.

The ears I felt as flat pieces and then shape them. So far, for all my whiskers I have used horse hair which I have threaded and sewn with a needle.

And there you have him - the finished mouse, mounted onto a small embroidery hoop.